I found a rather odd story on the Seattle Post Intelligencer aviation related blog (found HERE) referring to American Airlines indication of interest in possibly having Alaska Airlines as a merger partner.  There were two things of interest in this story but before I go on, I’ll just comment that I found it amusing that Alaska Airlines basically replied with a polite response that amounted to “Yeah, we’re happy with where we are today.”  And they should be since their own market cap is an order of magnitude greater than AA’s is presently.

The other item is odd.  It mentions AA showing interest in Southwest Airlines as a merger candidate.  First, I hope Herb Kelleher didn’t choke too hard from laughing.  He’s a nice guy and I wouldn’t want to think of him hurting himself.  Second, that isn’t a merger, that would for damn sure be SWA taking over *everything*.  Third, SWA is much smarter than that and knows how to responsibly represent its shareholders interests in the marketplace.

I hope that the reference to SWA was a mistake on the journalists part.  If it wasn’t, then if I were a financial analyst, shareholder or member of the unsecured creditors committee, I would start questioning just what the hell the company leadership is thinking.

Filed under: Airline News by ajax